CyberFox CEO On New AI-Powered DNS Filtering: ‘This Has Been Three Years In The Making’

‘Our mission is to deliver 80 percent of the features of the big guys at 90 percent off,’ says Dave Bellini, CyberFox CEO. ‘SMBs can’t afford $300 per user, per month for security tools, but they can afford $30 or $40. That’s our formula, and it works.’

CyberFox has launched a new DNS filtering offering that leverages advanced AI to detect and block malware and phishing domains, marking a significant expansion in the cybersecurity vendor’s portfolio.

“This has been three years in the making,” CyberFox CEO Dave Bellini told CRN. “Our customers kept asking for it, especially since COVID changed everything.”

A key differentiator in the offering is its ability to handle IPv6: the modern internet address protocol many older filtering tools still don’t fully support, Bellini said.

“Most of the older tools don’t track the new IPs,” he said. “So in a sense, those devices are just roaming free. That’s a big risk.”

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DNS filtering, along with the Tampa, Fla.-based vendor’s AutoElevate for privileged access management and Password Manager, will now live under a single portal that is part of the company’s larger push to offer an integrated security stack. The new tool also helps MSPs meet compliance standards like the CIS Controls framework.

“Our mission is to deliver 80 percent of the features of the big guys at 90 percent off,” Bellini said. “SMBs can’t afford $300 per user, per month for security tools, but they can afford $30 or $40. That’s our formula, and it works.”

As a longtime partner, Aaron Zimmerman is excited to add CyberFox’s DNS filtering because of its simplicity.

“Being able to block threats at the DNS level before they even reach our clients’ networks is huge,” Zimmerman, president and CEO of Garden City, Idaho-based TotalCareIT, told CRN in an email. “It’s exactly the kind of straightforward, effective security our clients need without the complexity that usually comes with it.”

Going forward, Bellini teased a growing bundle of tools in the future, including a phishing simulation and training tool, as part of the company’s “simple seven” approach to making cybersecurity manageable and effective for MSPs and their customers.

“MSPs are under more pressure than ever,” Bellini said. “Their customers are everywhere now, not just under one roof. We’re giving them one place to manage it all, one portal, one throat to choke and tools that actually fit their business model.”

And he said for MSPs feeling the squeeze of modern cybersecurity demands, CyberFox hopes its DNS filtering sends a clear message.

"You don’t need to spend enterprise money to get enterprise protection,” he said.